Local Ritual from Shrines You Shouldn’t Miss This Veg Fest

Phuket Vegetarian Festival is not only synonym of turning vegan for a week, it also offers some thrilling rituals from many different Chinese shrines across the island for you to discover. These rituals, performed by Ma Song, are believed to bring peace and serenity to the people joining the festival.

MA SONG PARADE

During the festival, the parade of Ma Song – angel mediums, who are often seen stabbing objects through their cheeks or slashing their tongues with knives as they believe this sacrifice will take away bad fortune, sickness and danger from those who take part in the festivities, starts from many shrines from every corner of Phuket. You can find the parades or locally called “Eiw Keng” based on this schedule. They usually start early in the morning:

One of the world-famous part of vegetarian festival is the sacrifice ritual that all Ma Song do in order to take away bad things and bless people who join the vegetarian festival. The ritual is considered extremely dangerous and insane for normal people.

Bladed Ladder Climbing

This ritual basically let the Ma Song climb up a very tall ladder where each step is made of a very sharp blade set vertically. The supernatural part about this rite is that, the Ma Song won’t bleed at all. You can find blade ladder climbing on October 7-8 following this schedule:

Another famous ritual of the festival is where Ma Song walk through fire on burning coal. Seeing from far away, it looks like they are walking on lava or a floor from hell. This rite, as well as the bladed ladder climbing, attracts a thousand of local vegetarians and tourists every year. You can visit the shrines following this schedule:

Usually, the last day of the festival is the biggest day when a massive parade of Ma Song from all the shrines across the island join together to head to the ritual centre, Sapanhin Park to end the festival with a blast.

Ma Song will still appear possessed with sharp weapons slashing their cheeks while millions of firecrackers will be set off as a sign to send the angel spirits back in heaven. You will find loads of local people waiting along the side road to watch the annual thrill and to pay respect to the Ma Song. Prepare yourself with face mask, goggles, and maybe a spare shirt or a piece of clothes to cover your hair from thick smoke, and grab your camera so you won’t miss the shots that happen all around.

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